All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Uncut

Third is the most stunning, stark and superb Portishead album yet. [May 2008, p.84]

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100

Paste Magazine

Third is far and away the best, most punk thing in the Portishead catalog: a deeply transgressive album that bears a passing similarity to its predecessors but leaves most of the baggage behind in favor of a full-blown reset.

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100

The Guardian

Portishead's third album is initially more a record to admire than to love, its muscular synthesisers, drum breaks and abrupt endings keeping the tension high. But after several listens, Third's majesty unfurls.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

This is the late-night, beat-driven, torpid-languid music of a zillion coffee shops, sure, but with the blood drained out of it, a creepy-crawly, black-and-white-sounding thing that gets under the skin and stays there from the first play

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PopMatters

Third is a complete work of art to fully immerse yourself in, listened to start to finish.

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All Music Guide

Here, the sad sounds aren't quite so soothing, but that human element of Portishead gives them a sense of comfort, just as it intensifies their sense of mystery, for it is the flaws--often quite intentional--that give this an unknowable soul and make Third utterly riveting and endlessly absorbing.

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New Musical Express

That it’s Portishead’s best album yet is little short of miraculous.

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Urb

It's hard to leave your comfort zone, especially with unrealistically high expectations, but the band successfully redefines itself without alienating their core audience. Welcome back, guys.

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Under The Radar

Third concludes with a string of stunners that feature sawing cello, improvisatory bursts of horns, and the most cathartic vocal performance Gibbons has ever set to tape, respectively. [Spring 2008, p.79]

Slant Magazine

There's enough on Third (spaghetti-western guitars, organs, barking effects) to sate those who pine for the late '90s, but gone is the turntable scratching, ostensibly deemed too much of a relic from that decade; in its place are more electronic flourishes, like the cyclic synth-bass loop that softens the second half of "The Rip," a song which is proof positive that Goldfrapp would never exist without Portishead.

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Spin

As punk's dumbing down has proven, anyone can make abrasive music, but few can do something new and compelling with apocalyptic heaviness. That Portishead manage to do both 14 years into their recorded career is an unexpected triumph over the darkest clouds that have shaped their art and soul. [May 2008, p.93]

Delusions of Adequacy

The album is consistently strong from start to finish with enough outstanding material to vault it into classic status right next to "Dummy."

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Pitchfork

Released today, it instead feels like a staggering transformation and a return to form that was never lost, an ideal adaptation by a group that many people didn't know they needed to hear again.

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Los Angeles Times

Though several doses of this languid, tension-filled music get a tad draining, taken altogether it is a suitable sound for our troubling times, and there's an invigorating mysteriousness.

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Almost Cool

It's one of the most vital releases I've heard this year, and while I can hear fans of their past work being a bit puzzled, I simply can't imagine anyone not being at least a bit thrilled by it.

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Entertainment Weekly

Third is indeed a less immediately accessible effort than Portishead's more groove-oriented earlier work, but it's no less gorgeous.

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Observer Music Monthly

Never has a pit of despair sounded so inviting.

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Village Voice

The good news for people who love bad news is that Portishead have gotten better, too.

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Dusted Magazine

Third is about the potential for being, not being itself. It’s the base chemistry of the Portishead sound, a compound awaiting reaction. Which is up to the listener to produce, like the lightning that brings the Monster to life.

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Drowned In Sound

Both ancient and futuristic, a mildewed signal from a more advanced culture that failed to survive the ice age, Third doesn’t make you pay attention to its desolate contours, but rather stare out of the window, creeping panic causing your mind to dart in a million dark directions at once.

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Hot Press

Long awaited comeback from Bristol trip-hop outfit proves worth the wait.

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Sputnikmusic

Brilliant.

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Boston Globe

Portishead's methods are hardly frozen in time. And that evolution is what makes these elaborately layered tracks such a knotty, mesmerizing listen.

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Alternative Press

Listening to Portishead has always been like floating through a waking dream, but now the sleek edges have atrophied into a dusty chaos, and it's all the more beautiful and perfect for the change. [June 2008, p.136]

Mojo

Third shows Portishead in the tradition of, say, Fairpoint Convention as much as Massive Attack, and though it might not convert sceptics it is convincing, and occasionally thrilling, demonstration that the wilderness can be a great place to cook up new ideas. [May 2008, p.103]

Vibe

It's been a long wait, but like reborn armies in the night, Third has the blare of revolution. [June 2008, p.70]

Prefix Magazine

Behind these minor tones and detached themes, Third emits a knowing and quiet confidence that communicates the band’s strongly held ideas, especially that of existential ennui.

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Billboard

Pitch-shifting strings punctuate the background like reminders of the cinema of the past, but this Portishead doesn't wink at anything, eschewing style altogether. In our self-referential culture, an album like this is an aberration. Again.

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musicOMH.com

Yet far from being miserable, this is a record substantially more alive than its eponymous predecessor.

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Dot Music

Exquisitely detailed, you can well believe that this is an album many years in the making and one with twice those years of pain inscribed in its emotionally wracked songs.

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Austin Chronicle

Ten years later, they've managed to capture our paranoid times and sound transcendent as well.

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cokemachineglow

Portishead seem to be playing against intuition at every corner.

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The Phoenix

Anyone expecting a return to the slick cinemafunk of ’90s Portishead will be taken aback by Third, but though the album never reaches the eureka moments of old, it’s a welcome step into new territory and a more than satisfying downer dose to set against the onset of sunny days and ice cream.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

Third is a carefully rewarding record with enough inspired turns to entertain throughout.

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Rolling Stone

Third is an unexpected yet totally impressive return.

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NOW Magazine

Even though not every twisted move they make on Third pays dividends, considering the stakes, consciously fucking with their formula is a bold gamble for which they should be saluted.

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Q Magazine

Third will probably be more admired than listened to and, you suspect, this suits Barrow, just fine. [May 2008, p.131]

Blender

It's groove-deprived and difficult, and not in a particularly inventive way. [May 2008, p.78]

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 114 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ricardo C gave it a9:
I can't really understand how Blender found this album difficult, the album is amazing. If you listen to it carefully and loud, its even better. One of my favourite.

Tim C gave it a9:
Simply superb.

Jose Y. gave it a10:
What a masterpiece! So innovative, noisy, powerful, delicate, beautiful... Try to make a beautiful melody just kicking empty plastic bottles and throwing cans to the air. If you think that's impossible, well, that's easier than what Barrow did on this album. And what can we say about Gibbons' voice? Her singing is enormously sweet and complex over painfully dark lyrics. And who said it's an album to admire, not to listen to? I am listening this album at least once a week since it was released and never get tired of it. One of my top five albums (along to Franz Ferdinand, The downward spiral, OK computer and Trans-Europe Express). Now, if you excuse me, I have to leave you. I have to listen to Machine Gun. Again.

Joe gave it a9:
A nice album. I have never heard any of their earlier work but this is a very nice album.

Aniruddha B gave it a10:
The best thing by portishead... and one of my favourite albums of all time.

Chris C. gave it a9:
Portishead proves once again that they are true artists. They are still a haunting band of depth that goes against the grain without sounding pretentious.

Matt W. gave it a9:
Hands down, the best thing Portishead have ever done.

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